The Church of England’s spokesman in the Isle of Man says no churches have been earmarked for immediate closure.

Reverend John Coldwell, director of communications of the Diocese of Sodor and Man, made his comments after a television report.

BBC1’s Countryfile programme on Sunday evening said that 10 Manx churches may be at risk of closure in the near future.

The rural affairs show cited a leaked report by the Archdiocese of York on the income of Anglican churches.

It said that church attendance, already suffering from a long decline, had been further affected by the coronavirus pandemic - which had also resulted in a shift towards online services.

However Reverend Coldwell told iomtodsy that he was not aware of any specific Manx churches which were at risk of closing, and that nothing had been decided in terms of any future closures.

He referred to the strategic buildings review for the Diocese of Sodor and Man published last year, which looked into the ’dwindling’ funding for parish churches and the impact of lockdown on donations.

He added that the situation is under review, and that he was sure ’a number of churches at some point will close’, but the exact figure was uncertain.

Reverend Coldwell said that there was currently a group of people looking into this, including Bishop Peter Eagles, but that they would not be reporting back on this until later in the year.

If any churches were to close, he said a main factor would likely be the issue that there are too many island churches (41) compared to its population.

Reverend Coldwell contrasted this with a English diocese of a roughly equivalent population such as Shrewsbury, which in turn only has around eight churches.

He noted the sale of Port Erin Methodist Chapel, which was reported last week, after the Church Council concluded it was too big for its needs.

Asked about the impact of the pandemic, Reverend Coldwell said: ’Covid’s impacted on everybody, with the lockdowns. People not being able to come to church has had a financial impact on quite a number of churches, as it has with a lot of businesses as well.’